


Mania Unleashed

by AKATheCupcakes



Series: Aria of Soul [2]
Category: Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, F/M, Mental Health Issues, Sonic Forces, Sonic Mania, Sonic World Adventure | Sonic Unleashed, Suicidal Thoughts, Torture
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-12
Updated: 2021-03-19
Packaged: 2021-03-19 08:13:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 11,083
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29996451
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AKATheCupcakes/pseuds/AKATheCupcakes
Summary: After traveling to Angel Island with Sonic to see if they get get it back in the air, Myla has less than 2 weeks to get back the the City for the life saving surgery to repair her heart. Unfortunately, she’s in another dimension right now, and her boyfriend’s a werehog. Having been told she’s unable to use her powers without putting her own life in danger, Myla has to figure out how to get herself and Sonic home, keep one step ahead of an Eggman calling himself Doctor Robotnik, and keep the darkest side of herself from taking control.In hindsight, she probably should have stayed home.
Relationships: Amy Rose/Shadow the Hedgehog, Avatar | Custom Hero (Sonic Forces)/Sonic the Hedgehog, Heavy King/Heavy Mage
Series: Aria of Soul [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2188782
Comments: 1
Kudos: 2





	1. Holiday

**Author's Note:**

> Mania Unleashed Setlist can be found here:
> 
> https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOmKNtvNLzx9LR64EVflIaNnj35HQqlll
> 
> MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR FUTURE CHAPTERS!

Myla and Sonic left the City hand in hand, playfully bickering about whether or not six-thirty in the morning was a good time to get ice cream. They ultimately decided ‘no’, mostly because there was nowhere serving ice cream at six-thirty in the morning, and ended up stopping at a small café outside the City and getting pancakes.

The trip out to Angel Island had been fantastic; they spent the whole first week just being tourists during the day and camping at night. Myla had her guitar with her and would play late into the night, singing whatever came to mind. Sometimes, if he recognized the song, Sonic sang along with her. They went to bed every night with their sleeping bags side by side, and every morning Myla always found herself waking up in Sonic’s arms.

Sonic took advantage of the fact Myla had spent most of her life in Sunset Heights to show her everything he’d loved from his travels; the old Marble Gardens outside of Green Hills, the beaches around Emerald Hills, the gorgeous architecture of Apotos… he promised her that after she recovered from her surgery, he would take her even more places.

That promise was the only part of surgery that Myla was looking forward to.

Angel Island was still grounded when they got there and seemed to be completely empty of badniks. Sonic presumed that everything there must have been an illusion made by Metal and with him gone, Eggman didn’t care about the island anymore. Myla hoped he was right.

“Looks like no one’s been here since we left,” she said, looking around at the Hidden Palace when they arrived, early one morning before the sun had risen. “Everything looks the same.” Sonic nodded.

“Yeah, weird for Eggman to just leave an emerald alone… so, what’s your plan?”

“I love that you think I have a plan.” He laughed.

“Yeah, I haven’t got one either.” Myla raised her hand for a high five, which Sonic gave to her.

“We are good at this.” She looked at the Master Emerald, setting her bag and wispon on the floor. “The Master Emerald was supposedly attracted to the ruby’s energy… I’m gonna try touching it; maybe I’ll get a reaction.”

“Alright,” he agreed with a nod. “Be careful.”

The most unfair part was she hadn’t even touched the Emerald when the portal opened. It just appeared in front of her as she was moving forward; she had no choice but to fall into it. It looked like a tunnel to Null Space had formed around her, but there was no sound of a reality warp.

“Myla!” She was falling face first through oblivion when she heard Sonic yell her name, getting herself turned around just in time to see him dive through the portal after her. She reached out towards him, tried to make herself fall slower. She knew she could use the ruby’s powers… her powers now, but had no idea what they’d do in a place like this. Sonic was getting farther and farther away from her, there was nothing for him to run on… a couple platforms, that wouldn’t be bad, right? It wouldn’t hurt her…

Before she could make the attempt, she heard him scream.

“Sonic?!” Something was happening to him; he was curled up, clenching his stomach, shaking. “Hang on, I’m coming!”

“No! Stay back!” Myla’s eyes widened as Sonic began to change. He got bigger… his fur got darker… she felt something wrap around her chest, pinning her arms to her sides, pushing her guitar tight against her back. She looked down and found herself trapped within a giant claw.

“Let me go!” She struggled, kicking and screaming, trying to get free. She heard an ear shattering roar and looked back towards Sonic.

The Sonic coming towards her was not the Sonic she was used to; this was by far the weirdest thing she’d ever seen.

Whatever was coming towards her disappeared as she felt herself pulled backwards; the walls of energy cubes vanished, the portal closing seconds after she was pulled through. Sonic never made it out.

“Sonic!” Myla found herself dangling within the claw’s grasp, held over what looked like some sort of energy field powered by various machines. Very familiar looking machines…

“Well, well, what do we have we here?” Myla looked around, finding herself looking down onto a large bald man with a huge mustache.

“Let me go, Eggman!” she yelled, still struggling with the claw. “I swear, if you’ve broken my guitar, I will rip your mustache off and use it as new strings!” The man raised an eyebrow.

“Eggman? That must be my counterpart in your dimension.” He grinned at her. “My name is Doctor Robotnik; I don’t know why my machine brought you here, but I am going to find out.”

***

It was a beautiful morning, Tails thought as he sat on the roof of his workshop, looking up at the sky with his camera. He’d been waiting for months for this: a meteor shower would be visible from their part of South Island early in the morning. Sonic was going to miss it of course, him not being an early morning person, but Tails was sure he’d be able to get a few good pictures to show him later.

“Hey Tails!” He looked down over the side of his roof.

“Knuckles! What brings you here?”

“I was coming over to check out that meteor shower you’ve been talking about.” The red echidna climbed up the side of Tails’ workshop, settling down next to him. “Also wanted to know if you’ve seen anything strange while you’ve been out here?”

“Strange how?” Tails asked.

“I’m not sure myself,” Knuckles admitted. “I felt some strange energies while I was heading over here.”

“Related to the Master Emerald?”

“No, I’ve got that stashed somewhere safe… honestly, one of them felt like that Phantom Ruby that Robotnik had…”

“That vanished after we defeated the Hard Boiled Heavies, didn’t it?”

“Yeah …”

“What about the other energy?” Knuckles shook his head.

“That one… that one I’m really worried about…”

“Why’s… oh look! Here comes the meteor shower!” Knuckles looked up to where Tails was pointing; sure enough, hundreds of fiery spheres were shooting through the sky. He could hear Tails’ camera clicking away as he tried to get as many pictures as he could. “What the…?”

“What’s up?”

“There’s something else up there, falling!” Tails handed Knuckles his camera, pointing. “Right there, look!” Knuckles head the viewfinder on the camera up to his eye and looked where Tails was pointing; sure enough, there was something else, something very much not a giant space rock, falling from the sky. He stared at it for a bit, trying to decide if his eyes were playing tricks on him.

“Is… is that a giant hedgehog?!” Tails let out a huge sigh of relief.

“I am so glad I’m not the only one to think that…”

“It’s coming right for us!”

“It’s going to land on the beach!” Tails jumped up, intending to fly over to it, only to be held back by Knuckles. “What’s wrong?”

“That other energy… the one I’m worried about. It’s coming from whatever that thing is.” He handed Tails back his camera. “Stay here, I’ll check it out.”

Seconds after Knuckles started to glide towards where the possible giant hedgehog was going to land, it landed. The entire beach shook, as well as the workshop and Tails himself. He barely managed to keep himself from falling off the roof; what ever the thing was, it was definitely heavy.

“Tails!” The young fox jumped. “Tails, are you alright?”

“Sonic?” He looked down off the roof; Sonic was standing in the sand, arms crossed over his chest, looking concerned. “What are you doing here?”

“What do you mean what am I doing here?! I felt that huge earthquake and came to check on you!”

“It wasn’t an earthquake… you’re not going to believe this, but a giant hedgehog just fell out of the sky!” Sonic stared at him.

“Did one of those meteors hit you on the head, buddy?”

“I’m not kidding!” Tails exclaimed, point to where the impact happened. “Knuckles is down there checking it out!”

“Well what are we waiting around here for? Let’s go!”

***

The sun was just starting to rise as Knuckles landed near the crater created by the unidentified flying hedgehog. He walked up to it slowly, peering over the edge. It was, in fact a giant hedgehog, with matching giant teeth and giant claws. It was lying on it’s back, seemingly unconscious… and somehow it looked really familiar…

“Hey, Knuckles!”

“Sonic?” The blue hedgehog was at his side in an instant, and Knuckles could hear Tails flying behind him.

“Holy Mother of Chili Dogs,” Sonic said. “That’s a giant hedgehog….” He tilted his head slightly. “He looks kinda familiar, doesn’t he?” Before Knuckles could reply, the sun crept down into the crater and onto the monstrous hedgehog; it suddenly started to glow… and shrink.

“What’s happening?” Tails asked as he landed next to Sonic. He had barely finished his sentence when the glow faded, leaving a much smaller, but no less familiar, hedgehog behind.

“It’s Sonic!” Sonic said, jumping down into the crater. “The one from the other dimension!”

“What’s he doing here?” Knuckles asked, hopping down after him.

“Is he gonna be okay?” Tails added. Before anyone could answer, the other Sonic started to move a little.

“Easy,” Sonic said. “Take it easy…” The other Sonic opened his eyes and looked at his counter part. “It’s okay, everything’s okay…” The other Sonic shook his head a little.

“Myla… where’s my Myla…”


	2. Broken

The good news was that Myla’s guitar was not broken. The bad news was that this Robotnik took it from her moments before forcing a thick metal collar around her neck and similar looking shackles on her wrists. He then had a pair of badniks (Eggrobos, Robotnik had called them) throw her onto a metal platform. With the press of a button, walls shot up, creating a metal dome around her and trapping her inside. It was so cramped in there, she couldn’t imagine more than two or three people being in it at a time.

She would very much like to imagine herself outside of it.

“Let me out of here!” Being restrained was bad enough, but being locked in this… thing? This was so much worse. She had always hated small enclosed spaces like this, had ever since she was a child. It was one of the few vivid memories she of her childhood; being trapped inside something barely bigger than she was, completely dark and silent… she was going to lose her mind in here, she was sure of it.

“I don’t know where you came from, hedgehog,” her captor said, looking at her through the only tiny window on the capsule. “But my claw machine is designed to track and retrieve powerful energy signatures; it should have taken the Master Emerald from your dimension. Instead, it grabbed hold of you.” He smirked. “We’ll be running some tests later to find out exactly why that is.” His face disappeared from the window. Myla pounded on the window, hoping that she could break it somehow, then tried to slip out of her shackles, both to no avail. She eventually gave up, falling onto her back, panting.

Her chest hurt so much right now. Which honestly wasn’t fair, she hadn’t used her powers at all since leaving the hospital. Under any other circumstance, she probably could have used them to break free, but with the way her heart was pounding, she didn’t dare try. She’d just have to wait… for what, she didn’t know. She didn’t have her bag or her wispon, she’d dropped them at some point, her communicator had been taken by Robotnik… she was alone again. She felt broken again.

_Is this what we’re doing? You could just blast your way out of here._

And she saw something happen to Sonic, something she didn’t currently have the energy to wrap her head around… and she had no idea if he had made it to wherever she was or not.

“Sonic… please be okay…”

_Oh, still ignoring me, Ruby? That’s fine. I’ll wait._

***

“Who’s Myla?” Knuckles asked as he helped his friend carry this new Sonic, who had passed out shortly after asking for her, to Tails’ workshop. He’d been aware of Sonic’s various adventures in another dimension with another Sonic, but he never actually thought he’d meet them.

“She’s from his dimension,” Sonic replied. “She helped us stop their Robotnik… he goes by Eggman there, it’s really weird.”

“Eggman, really?”

“Yeah…” He helped Knuckles set Sonic on a bench in the workshop. “I don’t know why they’d be here though…” Tails came in with a pitcher of water and some glasses, setting everything down on a table.

“Has he always been a… werehog?” Tails asked. Sonic shook his head.

“Not that I know of.”

“Whatever he is,” Knuckles cut in, “there’s a darkness to him. He’s the source of one of the energies I picked up on… maybe the second one is this Myla? Should we try and look for her?” Sonic nodded.

“Yeah… she could be hurt somewhere…”

“You’re the only one that knows what she looks like,” Tails pointed out. “You and Knuckles should go see if you can find her; I’ll stay here with Sonic. The other Sonic… you know what I mean.”

***

“Are you sure they made it here?” Shadow asked as he walked with Knuckles and Amy through the Lava Reef passages towards the Hidden Palace. The moment Myla had missed her regular check in, Knuckles announced he was heading to Angel Island to look for her and Sonic; Amy volunteered to go along, and Shadow wasn’t letting her go anywhere remotely dangerous without him.

“She said yesterday that she and Sonic were planning to get here today,” Knuckles replied. “I figure we can start here at least. Maybe her communicator’s busted or ran out of batteries.”

“Hopefully that’s all it us,” Amy replied. “I was sure she packed…” She froze suddenly. “Oh no… look!” Shadow looked in the direction she was pointing and frowned.

In front of the Master Emerald was Myla’s bag and wispon. Myla and Sonic were nowhere to be seen. Amy ran over and picked up her bag, checking inside.

“Her communicator isn’t in here… and I don’t see her guitar.”

“I found Sonic’s bag,” Shadow said, picking it up off the floor a few feet away. “It’s like they just vanished.”

“How is that possible?”

“I don’t know,” Knuckles said, frowning. “But we’re not going to find out by just standing here. Let’s look around, see if we can find anything. I’ll call Tails, have him bring the Miles Electric here to see what he can pick up.”

***

He was running. What was he running from? Or… running after? Sonic wasn’t sure.

He felt slow. Heavy somehow. But so, so powerful.

He heard footsteps. Not his own, someone else’s. He was chasing someone then, and he was getting close. He could smell their fear… he could smell something familiar.

There was a crash in front of him. He smelled blood now, heard a painful cry. He could see them now; they had tripped over something and fallen to the ground. They were picking themselves up slowly, there was blood dripping off their arms, injuries from their fall.

He was on them in seconds, tackling them back to the ground. They cried out in pain again; the voice… it was familiar somehow. He flipped them over to see their face.

It was Myla.

“Sonic,” she begged, trying to push herself away from him. He pinned her to the ground with one of his giant claws, feeling her heart race. “Sonic… Please…” She was so scared. He snarled and her, leaning down towards her throat. “No!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “Broken” - Seether featuring Amy Lee
> 
> https://youtu.be/hPC2Fp7IT7o


	3. Falling Out of Reach

“MYLA!”

Sonic sat straight up, covered in sweat, his heart pounding. A dream… a nightmare… he hadn’t just turned into a wearhog and killed his Myla, it was just a nightmare.

But he had turned into the werehog again. He remembered that vividly; that familiar pain of his body contorting into that monster for the first time. It shouldn’t have been possible, he and Chip stopped Dark Gaia… Sonic looked at his wrist where Chip’s necklace usually was, worn to remind him of their adventures. He still had it, of course; he’d taken it off before the war started, wanting to keep it safe. It was back at his house, in a chest under his bed… he missed the little guy. Knowing he’d never see him again didn’t help.

On his wrist now was a bracelet made of purple and gold string, woven together in a diamond pattern. Myla had made it for him while they were in Apotos…

“Myla… Myla?!”

“She’s not here…” Sonic jumped a little before turning towards the voice. Tails was standing in a nearby doorway. A Tails was anyway.

“You’re a little short to be my Tails…” Tails grinned at him.

“That’s okay, you’re a little tall to be my Sonic.” Tails handed him a glass of water, which he accepted. “Sonic and Knuckles are out looking for Myla,” he continued. “She wasn’t with you when you fell…” Sonic nodded a little, drinking his water.

“Something brought us here,” he said. “A portal or something. She fell in first; something grabbed her before I could get to her…” He sighed, remembering the look on her face when that claw wrapped around her, when it started pulling her away from him.

“You… um… you looked different when you got here,” Tails said cautiously.

“I bet… it’s a long story…”

“I’ve got time.” Sonic chuckled a little.

“Yeah… okay.” He told Tails about how Eggman had captured him in his super form, using his energy and that of the chaos emeralds to awaken Dark Gaia. He told him about how he and Chip defeated Dark Gaia, sealing him back within the planet. “When I jumped in after Myla,” he continued, “something triggered the transformation. I don’t know what, but now… I’m probably going to change every night until we figure out what happened.”

“We can work on that once we find your friend,” Tails promised. “Like I said, Sonic and Knuckles are out looking for her now. We could probably meet up with them if you want?” Sonic nodded.

“Yeah… how long until nightfall?”

“Three or four hours; we found you right at sunrise, but you slept for a while.” Sonic got to his feet and stretched.

“Lets see if we can at least meet up with them before I change again… hopefully Myla recognizes me when we find her.” Tails nodded.

“You’re really worried about her huh?”

“Yeah, she’s… she’s my Myla…” Tails nodded, smiling. Understanding. Girlfriend would have been so much easier to say, but it somehow didn’t fit. It wasn’t enough somehow… “She also has a heart condition,” he continued. “She’s supposed to have surgery in a few days…”

“We should get going then; come on!” Sonic followed Tails outside, looking at this new world he was in; the beach they were on was beautiful, Myla was going to love it.

They just needed to find her.

***

The collar around Myla’s neck and shackles around her wrists would send a paralytic energy through her if she tried to run, something she discovered when she was let out of her prison and made a break for it. It didn’t hurt, yet as Robotnik had put it, but it would soon enough if she didn’t ‘behave’. She now found herself strapped to an examination table, being scanned by a large machine that he claimed analyzed energy signatures. She hated the fact that she was kind of impressed with the whole thing.

“How interesting!” Robotnik declared as he looked at the scans he had taken. “You are infused with the powers of the Phantom Ruby, that explains why the claw went after you instead on the Master Emerald.”

“Sonic destroyed the Phantom Ruby,” Myla said. “I’m not infused with anything.”

_Way to sell that, Ruby, he’s definitely going to let you go now._

“Lying doesn’t become you.” He grinned down at her. He had a cartoonish look about him, it somehow made him creepier than Eggman in Myla’s mind. “There are many out there who would be interested in this power of yours; you’re lucky I found you before any of them did.”

“Why’s that?”

“I know to keep you alive.”

“How comforting,” Myla said flatly.

“I would hope so,” he replied, turning off the scanners. “Eggrobos! Take her back to the capsule.”

“You said you were after the Master Emerald,” Myla said quickly, trying to buy time before they locked her up again. “Why would you steal one from another dimension, you have to have one here!”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Robotnik replied with a smirk. The Eggrobos unstrapped her from the table, each one holding her tightly by the arm.

“Please don’t put me back in there!” Myla begged. She wasn’t actively struggling with them, but she wasn’t making it easy for them to take her back. “You got these things on me, you don’t have to put me in there again!”

_Oh yes, that’s really going to convince him._

“I know.” She was thrown onto the platform again, the walls coming up around her before she could move. “We’ll see what else you can do later, hedgehog.” She looked out the small window just in time to see him and the Eggrobos leave, one of the bots turning out the lights, leaving her in complete darkness. She rested her forehead against the small window, pounding on it once with one of her fists.

She wanted to cry. Scream. Something. She didn’t have the energy for any of it. She looked out the window one last time before letting herself fall to the floor, curling up as tight as she could, trying to make herself as small as possible in the tiny prison. He would be back soon, she was sure. Back to run more scans, run those tests he kept mentioning…

Until then, all she could do was try to stay calm and hope her Sonic was somewhere out there.

_He’s going to kill you, Ruby, and you’re not even lifting a hand to stop him._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “Somewhere Out There” - Our Lady Peace
> 
> https://youtu.be/8SzFaEqbLRM
> 
> If nothing else, this series is making me remember how much I love the music from my teenage years.


	4. The End of Everything

Sonic and Knuckles did a quick search of the area around Tails workshop; when they didn’t find Myla there, they headed for Robotnik’s lair. The place wasn’t well hidden, being that it looked like a giant metal replica of his head, so it didn’t take them long to get there. They climbed up to a window high on the dome that looked down into one of Eggman’s laboratories.

“Is that her?” Knuckles whispered. Sonic looked down and sure enough, there was Myla. She was different from what he remembered; her hair was longer, her tie dye shirt was replaced with a simple grey one, and she seemed to have some sort of collar around her neck. Looking further, she also had shackles around her wrists. She was running, chased by two of Robotnik’s Eggrobos, clearly trying to escape.

“We should get in there,” Sonic said. As Knuckles nodded his agreement, Myla suddenly stopped moving; her entire body went stiff, the collar and shackles were glowing. She remained still as the Eggrobos got to her, grabbing her by the arms and taking her over to an exam table, where they strapped her down. Once she was secured, the glowing on her restraints had stopped and she appeared to be able to move again.

“I wouldn’t do that again, hedgehog,” Robotnik said. Sonic glared down at him, listening intently. “The restraints are currently programmed to paralyze you if you try to escape. If you don’t start to behave, that will change.”

“Noted,” Myla replied, glaring back at him.

“Jerk,” Knuckles muttered. “If we went down and got her, he’d just flip a switch and she’d be stuck.” Sonic nodded, still watching what was happening in the laboratory below. He was doing some sort of scan on her, yellow lights moving up and down her body.

“We’ll have to go get Tails,” he said after a moment. “He’ll probably be able to those off of her…”

The two of them listened as Robotnik touted his discovery of the Phantom Ruby energy inside Myla, her denial about it, his dismissal of her denial… his orders to the Eggrobos to put her back in the capsule.

“Please don’t put me back in there!” Myla’s plea was chilling. She sounded so scared… she looked so scared. “You got theses things on me, you don’t have to put me in there again!”

“I know.” The Eggrobos unceremoniously dropped her on the platform, the capsule quickly forming around her. Sonic could see her face in the small window, her forehead resting on the glass.

“She looks terrified…”

“Claustrophobic,” Knuckles replied with a frown. “We’ll need to work fast.” Sonic watched as one of the Eggrobos shut off the lights in the room, leaving Myla in darkness.

“Let’s go get Sonic and Tails.”

***

“There they are!” Tails yelled. “Sonic! Knuckles!” He watched his friends slow to a stop as he flew down to them, the other Sonic arriving shortly after. Tails couldn’t help thinking things were about to get complicated.

“Good to see you again, Sonic,” Big Sonic said, offering his hand to his counterpart, who took it and gave it a shake.

“Likewise, man. You know Knuckles.”

“You are smaller than the one I know,” Big Sonic replied with a grin.

“Bet I punch just as hard!” Knuckles replied with a glare.

“We can talk about that later,” Little Sonic cut in. “Sonic, we’ve found Myla; Robotnik has her.” He quickly explained what he and Knuckles had saw, noticing how his double’s fists clenched as he told the story. “We wanted to go after her, but she’s got those restraints on her…”

“It wouldn’t have made any sense, he could have kept hurting her,” Big Sonic finished. “I get it…” He closed his eyes, trying to remain as calm as possible. Myla being claustrophobic was no news to him; it was honestly one of the first things he learned about her.

***

“So Tails was running scans with his Miles Electric,” Sonic said, hands behind his head, looking up at the ceiling of the shuttle back to the planet. He was seated beside the rookie—Myla, he remembered; happy to have literally anyone to talk to, he just started running his mouth about how he ended up on the Death Egg in the first place. “And he wasn’t getting anything, which of course should have been the first clue that things were about to go horribly wrong… hey, where is Tails?”

“I’m sorry,” Myla replied softly, her voice strangely muffled. “I don’t know… I don’t think I’ve met him…”

“Really? That doesn’t seem like him at all…”

Sonic turned to look at her; she had her feet up on her seat, her arms wrapped around her legs, hugging them close to her with her face buried into her knees. She was shaking, he could hear her breathing hard...

“Hey, buddy?” Sonic asked softly, gently resting his hand on her shoulder. “You okay?” She didn’t say anything, just shook her head. “Are you hurt?”

“No… sorry. I’ll be fine.” Sonic frowned, trying to figure out what was happening. She’d been okay aboard the Death Egg, same with when they ran into the shuttle… before the shuttle closed up…

“It’s tight in here, isn’t it?” She turned her head a little to look at him. “I’ve never liked being cooped up,” he continued. “The smaller the place, the worse it is…” He smiled at her. “Same for you?”

“Yeah.” She lifted her head up a little, her shaking having subsided slightly. “I… I got shoved in a locker when I was a kid; some older kids at school thought it’d be funny. It was the end of the day, everyone else had left… I don’t know how long I was in there before a janitor found me.”

“Deep breaths,” Sonic told her. “Nice and slow; in through your nose, out of your mouth. Close your eyes; don’t think about where you are, think about where you’d rather be.” She nodded a little, breathing as he instructed, her eyes closing. “There you go… so, where would you rather be right now?” He watched her eyelids clench a little as she thought about it.

“There’s this street in Sunset Heights,” she said after a moment. “If you go behind the Spagonian restaurant, you can get up to the rooftops. They’re mostly flat, but there’s a couple places where you need to jump up or down…”

“I know those rooftops,” Sonic replied with a grin. “If you get up there at the right time, it’s the most beautiful thing.” Myla nodded.

“Gloaming… you start at the restaurant, and head east towards the clock tower…”

“There’s that old staircase that spirals up the upper half of clock tower, you can only get to it from the rooftops; when you get to the top, the moon is up and the stars are out, and you feel…”

“Like you could run up into the stars.” She’d stopped shaking, Sonic noticed, her breathing had slowed… and when she opened her eyes, she was smiling the most beautiful smile he’d ever seen. “I thought I was the only one that knew about that… how come I’ve never seen you running there?” He shrugged.

“Guess I was never lucky enough to be there when you were… how about we go together some time?” Myla nodded.

“Yeah… I’d like that a lot.”

***

“Sonic? Did you hear me?” Sonic shook his head, looking down at the young fox. He and Myla hadn’t gotten to run those rooftops together yet… that place Myla felt that only the two of them knew about…

“Sorry, Tails,” he replied. “Guess I spaced out there for a second.” Tails nodded.

“I get it; she’s your Myla, you’re worried about her.” Sonic smiled, playfully punching Tails on the shoulder. Little Sonic watched them with an amused look on his face. Sonic grinned back; some things, like his friendship with Tails, were just universal.

“Thanks buddy; what were you saying?”

“If we can get to Myla without Robotnik knowing,” Tails continued, “I can probably get all the restraints off of her, but I’ll need to go grab my tools…” Sonic shook his head.

“I wouldn’t put it past him to have the thing rigged, it would just be putting you in danger too…” He looked up at the sky; the sun was heading towards the west and would be setting soon. “I’ve got another idea…”

***

Myla was pulled from her prison a few more times. Once she was given food, which she ate begrudgingly, the other times were for Robotnik’s ‘tests’.

First was a mental endurance test, which she didn’t understand the point of; he asked her various mathematical and scientific questions, activating the paralytic energies if she refused to answer him. He was able to paralyze specific parts of her body, such as her lungs and heart. Once he’d demonstrated that, she stopped resisting as much. She was smart, not as smart as Tails, but she was able to keep up with the questions for a while.

_Oh come on, you can’t be this stupid._

After that was a physical endurance test; he locked her in a room and sent wave after wave of badniks at her. She was still wearing the restraints, which did nothing to help her; she was decent at hand to hand combat, but was much better with her wispon. Her tactics for a while were just to dodge, let badniks run into each other, destroy themselves.

This worked fine until an Eggrobo slammed into her, sending her flying into the waiting legs of a Grabber Spider. It held her tight while everything else in the room started attacking her at once.

“You have power, hedgehog!” Robotnik yelled at her. “You want to continue to live? Use it!”

_For the love of all that is holy, will you just listen to the man?!_

“You’re the one that says you need to keep me alive!” One wall of energy cubes would stop this assault and she knew it… but it would be giving him what he wanted. Myla wasn’t sure what he was trying to get out of this beyond proof she was able use the power she held, but… well, given the choice between dying and giving him what he wanted, she was going to choose the former. The real question, of course: was Robotnik bluffing about letting her die?

Hopefully she’d find out when she woke up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “Somewhere Only We Know” - Keane
> 
> https://youtu.be/Oextk-If8HQ


	5. Hiding In the Dark

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for one very in character use of the F word.

Knuckles kept watch as Sonic and Tails slipped into Robotnik’s base. The laboratory was easy to get to, being that it was at the top of the dome; one open window later and they were inside, heading for the capsule.

“Myla?” Sonic whispered, looking through the small window. She was facing away from him, slumped against the wall, not moving. Asleep, he assumed. She wasn’t wearing the collar or shackles, which was strange… made things easier in the long run though. “Myla, can you hear me?”

“It’s a regular capsule,” Tails said as he looked the device over. “One hit to the top and the walls should come down.”

“Get ready to grab her and get out of here,” Sonic replied. He jumped on the roof of the capsule, the walls coming down a second later. Myla started to fall backwards, Tails barely managing to catch her.

The rotten coconut acting as her head fell off the shoulders and smashed on the ground. The entire thing was a decoy, made out of spare robot parts thrown together into a vague Myla-like shape.

“Fools! Did you really think I would make things so easy on you?” Sonic’s head shot up; Robotnik was standing on a catwalk above the rest of the lab, smirking down at them. Next to him was Myla; on her knees, still restrained, now gagged as well. Her shirt was tattered, she was definitely injured… around the glow of her restraints, Sonic could just barely make out how she was quivering; she was in pain.

“Let her go, Robotnik!” Tails yelled up at him.

“No, I don’t think I will,” Robotnik replied, holding up a small remote. “And I wouldn’t come any closer if I were you… unless you want to see how how well she can behave with the proper motivation.” Sonic took a step backwards.

“Don’t…” Robotnik smirked, pressing a button on the remote. Myla reacted instantly; her back arched as she started screaming. Even with the gag in her mouth, her screams were near deafening. Robotnik pushed the button again and she fell forward, lying facedown.

“I think we’re all on the same page now,” Robotnik said.

“What do you want, Robotnik?” Sonic yelled, his hands clenched into fists. Anytime now… anytime now would be great…

“What I always want, Sonic,” came the reply. “The chaos emeralds.”

“I don’t have any of them!”

“Then you best start looking for them, hadn’t you?”

***

_Well, now you’re really in for it, Ruby._

Myla’s realization that she hadn’t died came when she’d been awoken by the inability to breathe; it was as though her lungs couldn’t move anymore. Her eyes opened to see a trio of Eggrobos standing over her. Two of them dragged her to her feet while the third shoved something into her mouth; it was hard, tasted like metal and was strapped around the back of her head. A gag of some sort? Why would they need to gag her?

Now that she felt like she was being stabbed by a million fiery needles, she completely understood.

When that specific pain subsided, she’d fallen face first onto the floor. She was vaguely aware of Sonic and Tails’ presence. Not her Sonic and Tails though. They sounded different. From what little she could see, they also looked different. The Tails she’d never seen before, but the Sonic was unmistakably the one that had helped her and her Sonic during the war… she was in his dimension then. That… that was reassuring, actually. She had at least one friend here.

“What do you want, Robotnik?” she heard Sonic yell.

“What I always want, Sonic; the chaos emeralds.”

“I don’t have any of them!”

“Then you best start looking for them, hadn’t you?” Myla managed to get back into a kneeling position, one of her shackled hands clutching her chest. She looked down at Sonic, shaking her head violently.

_You make way too many bad decisions to be as alive as you are._

She was back on the floor seconds later, the pain surging through her again. Something was pressing down on her neck; she was able to glance up just enough to see Robotnik with his foot on her throat.

“Stop it!” Sonic yelled. “That’s enough!” She could hear Robotnik laughing over his pleas… but she also heard something else. Something soft, yet sinister… growls…

Then she heard the howl.

_What the actual fuck is that?!_

The pressure on her throat vanished with a yell; not her, someone else. Robotnik, maybe? Something lifted her into the air. She felt large furry knuckles rub against her throat as something grabbed hold of the collar and squeezed. The collar exploded off her neck, the shackles following shortly after. The stabbing pain was gone; she collapsed against whoever was holding her, gasping. Everything else still hurt, but at least that was over…

“Myla?” She looked up at her rescuer; his face was full of concern, hesitation… he carefully unstrapped the gag from behind her head and took it out of her mouth, tossing it aside before gently cupping her cheek with his giant clawed hand. “Myla…?”

***

Sonic had taken another route into lab, which sadly wasn’t a straight shot and gave him too much time to think about what he was about to unleash. To tell the truth, he had been worried about turning into the werehog again; there had been so many times during his travels with Chip that he felt like a monster was inside of him, something he couldn’t control. If he couldn’t, someone was going to get hurt… his Myla might get hurt.

When he heard Myla scream the first time, the monster inside of him had only one thing to say: “What are we waiting for?”

He’d come into the lab behind Robotnik; Myla was lying on the floor and he had the audacity to step on her neck. He felt the anger welling inside of him as he started to growl. How _dare_ this man treat his Myla this way.

The howl came to him as natural as running, loud and hopefully terrifying to his intended target. He didn’t give Robotnik a chance to turn around, backhanding him off of Myla and into what looked like a pile of robot parts. While he wasted no time in picking Myla up, grabbing hold of the collar around her neck and squeezing until it exploded and doing the same with her shackles, he was worried she’d be frightened of him. Not that he’d blame her if she was…

“Myla?” He asked gently. When she looked up at him, his stomach dropped; that maniac had gagged her with some sort metal ball. He found the buckle holding the straps behind her head, unbuckled it carefully and took the gag out, throwing it towards Robotnik. He was pretty sure it hit him in the head. “Myla..?” He cupped her cheek in his hand, bracing himself for her to scream, to struggle…

She used what energy she had left to throw her arms around his neck and hug him tight.

“Sonic,” she whispered, burying her face into his neck. “You’re okay…” He hugged back, carefully, like he was scared of his own strength.

“You’re not,” he replied, his voice gruff to match his appearance. “Hang on; we’re getting out of here.”

“He took my guitar,” Myla mumbled. She felt him shake his head, the rumble of laughter in his chest

“Tails!” He yelled. “Do you see a guitar anywhere?”

“A guitar?!” came the bewildered reply.

“Acoustic; light brown body, dark red neck!”

“Is this seriously a priority right now?!”

“Priority is a strong word,” Myla admitted. She could hear alarms going off; this place would be full of badniks soon enough. “We should go… I can get another guitar.”

“Yeah… Skip the guitar, Tails! Let’s get out of here!” She felt Sonic’s embrace tighten around her. “Hang on tight, sweetheart.”

“Won’t be a problem; you’re super fluffy now.” She snuggled against him, as if trying to drive the point home. She felt him kiss the top of her head.

“You’re ridiculous.”

“I know; you love me anyway.”

“Yeah I do.”

***

Robotnik was trying to figure out what the heck just happened; he was so close to winning, as he had been many times before, but this time should have been it. He had the girl hedgehog completely at his mercy; she was important to Sonic and his friends, enough so that they came to rescue her. He should have been able to threaten them into getting the emeralds for him in exchange for her safety. He wouldn’t give her up, of course; there was too much power in her for that. But he desperately wanted to know what would happen to her when given the power of the seven chaos emeralds. An overload, most likely, but hopefully it came with an interesting explosion.

Then that… thing appeared. He wasn’t sure what it was, though it appeared to be a giant monstrous hedgehog… the girl seemed to recognize it, was actually glad to see it. This was all very interesting and likely something he could use to his advantage.

As soon as he could move again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “Monster” - Skillet


	6. Everything’s Nothing Without You

Myla held tight to her Sonic as they made their way out of Robotnik’s base. She could hear badniks explode around her, Sonic and Tails cracking jokes, her Sonic joking right along with them. She felt herself relax, felt the pain in her chest slowly subside…

_How do you manage to keep living through all this? Is it just sheer dumb luck? That would make sense, it being you and all._

“We’re out!” her Sonic yelled as they burst through a door. “Knuckles, you alright out here?”

“Peachy!” Knuckles replied. He seemed to have taken care of a good deal of badniks on his own, judging by the debris everywhere. “Is everyone okay?”

“I’m good!” Tails called. “Sonic took a detour, he should be here soon…”

“Detour?” Myla’s Sonic asked.

“Found it!” The smaller Sonic was suddenly next to his large werehog counterpart, holding something in his hands.

“My guitar!” Myla said happily, taking it from him. “Thanks, Sonic.” She offered her fist to him, which he happily bumped with his own.

“Lets get you somewhere safe,” Tails said. “You don’t look too good… no offense…” Myla grinned back at him.

“None taken; I don’t feel too good.”

With her guitar strapped across his back, Sonic the Werehog held Myla close as he followed Sonic, Knuckles and Tails through the forest around Robotnik’s lair, heading towards a ‘secret hideout’ that Knuckles claimed would be safe for Myla to recover in. She had already admitted that she wasn’t feeling great, but the werehog found himself worrying that she was doing worse than she let on. After hearing her let out a few pained gasps and whimpers when he would jump over something or ran at his (admittedly limited) top speed, he ended up slowing down to a walk.

“Still with me, gorgeous?” he asked as they continued on. He had long ago lost track of Knuckles and his smaller counterpart, but Tails would circle back to check on them and give directions.

“Flatterer,” she replied, her voice soft and exhausted. “I look anything but gorgeous right now…”

“Yeah, well.” He leaned down and kissed her forehead. “You always look gorgeous to me.” She giggled softly, cuddling closer to him. He could feel her fingers in his fur, stroking tactilely. “I missed you…”

“I wasn’t gone that long,” she teased.

“I miss you whenever you’re gone.” She laughed, flinching a little. “Are you okay?”

“Not really,” she admitted. “I… didn’t have a great time today…” Sonic listened with repressed rage as Myla told him about everything that had happened that day. His embrace on her tightened as a soft growl rumbled in his chest; much to his surprise, the growl seemed to soothe Myla. “I still don’t understand it…”

“Understand what?”

“His tests… I don’t know what he was trying to accomplish…” She shifted a little, groaning softly.

“I’m going to rip his mustache off,” the werehog said decidedly.

“I’ve already called dibs on that.” She was silent for a moment, still stroking his fur. “So… what’s going on here?” Sonic laughed, shaking his head.

“I’m not sure… I wasn’t supposed to be able to change into this again.” He told her about his adventure with Chip, defeating Dark Gaia. She frowned a little. “What’s wrong..?”

“This… this sounds really familiar… but I don’t remember any of that happening.” She sighed. “There’s a lot of gaps in my memory. I don’t understand it…”

“I’m sorry.” Myla nodded a little.

“Does it hurt when you change?” she asked.

“Only the first time.” He shuddered a little. “I don’t know why that is, but when I started changing in that portal? I knew exactly what was happening.”

“That’s… I’m not sure if ‘good’ is the right way to describe that.”

“It was good to know what what happening,” Sonic agreed. “How did you know it was me?”

“Why wouldn’t I?” He shrugged.

“When it happened before, Amy didn’t know who I was at first. It… it hurt a little. But you knew it was me right away… how?”

“You’re going to say this is ridiculous.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” She rolled her eyes, smiling a little.

“When I saw Metal at Hidden Palace, every fiber of my being was screaming that there was something wrong. But I was so happy to see ‘you’, I ignored it until it was too late. There was none of that back in the lab; when I saw you, I just…” She sighed. “My heart knew it was you.”

“That is ridiculous,” Sonic agreed.

“You’re ridiculous.”

“It’s also cheesy and adorable.”

“You’re adorable.”

_You two are nauseating. Seriously, I’m going to throw up._

Sonic laughed, feeling himself relax. His Myla was back with him. They were in a different world, but they were there together; that’s all that mattered right now. He had her back and he was never going to let her go…

“You’re okay though?” He looked down at her, confused.

“After everything you’ve been through, you’re seriously asking me if I’m okay?”

“Of course I am…” She reached up to cup his cheek in her hand. “The last time I saw you, you were screaming in pain… then, after that claw grabbed me, the portal closed and you were gone… I thought I’d lost you.” She stroked his cheek with her thumb and he leaned into her touch. This was their thing now; an action so simple, but somehow so comforting for the both of them. “So, humor me, handsome; are you okay?”

“Yeah,” he promised. “Yeah, sweetheart, I’m okay.”

***

Heavy King added whipped cream to his latest sundae creation; a chocolate covered pound cake base, two scoops each of every single ice cream in existence (and a couple that weren’t) arranged in a pyramid, then topped with marshmallow, caramel, whipped cream and one maraschino cherry atop each scoop of ice cream; the perfect cherry to scoop ratio. It was a special occasion sundae, made for birthdays and celebrations. It was excessive, but the look of happiness on his customers’ faces was always worth it.

He never meant to become a sorbettiere; he’d been an Eggrobo, loyal to Doctor Robotnik. Then came the Phantom Ruby, changing himself and his compatriots into their current forms… the battles with Sonic the Hedgehog and his friends. Those had been some good times, but this small ice cream café in the Mirage Desert? This was his happiness now.

He took a step back and admired his creation; it needed something… sprinkles maybe? He’d gotten in a new shipment of chocolate jimmies that would be perfect for this. He was at the cabinet when he heard the sound. The same sound that he’d heard the day they found the Phantom Ruby… no, it couldn’t be.

King felt himself shiver; he was unaware he could do that. If the Phantom Ruby was back, things could get ugly… he didn’t want ugly. He sighed, shaking his head.

“Scooper?”

“Yeah, boss?” A small robot resembling a waffle cone with mint chip ice cream came into the kitchen, bringing some dirty dishes with him. Heavy King had made him from discarded badniks; a pleasant little thing that could make children laugh and wait tables. King couldn’t have asked for a better assistant.

“Scooper, I’m going to be away for a few days. Mage should be here soon, let her know I’ll be back.”

“If you think you’re going anywhere without me, you’re crazy.” King smiled, looking past Scooper to his friend. Heavy Magician had used the Phantom Ruby to resurrect him and their other friends. She had stayed with him, while Gunner, Shinobi and Rider had gone their own ways.

“You heard it too?” he asked.

“Yeah… I like freedom too much to let the Phantom Ruby end up in Robotnik’s hands again.” She held out her hand with a grin. “Shall we?” He smiled, taking her hand.

“We shall.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “With Me” - Sum 41
> 
> https://youtu.be/g8z-qP34-1Y


	7. Help Me Make It Through The Night

“There’s definitely some residual energy here,” Tails said as he scanned the Master Emerald. “But it’s not all unknown.” He looked up from the Miles Electric. “While there’s some energy here that I’m not familiar with, there are two signatures that I’ve scanned before.”

“The first one being the Phantom Ruby?” Knuckles asked.

“Correct… the other, interestingly enough, is Dark Gaia.” Everyone just stared at him.

“You have to be kidding me,” Shadow replied. They all remembered Dark Gaia: the physical embodiment of destruction, darkness, negativity… all of that in one being.

“Sonic defeated Dark Gaia,” Knuckles said after a moment. “You don’t think it’s gotten to him again somehow?”

“It’s not impossible,” Tails admitted. “Whatever these other energy signatures are, they may have somehow attracted the Dark Gaia energy to Sonic. It’s also possible that Sonic still had some of the energy within him…”

“Let’s not speculate to hard on this right now,” Shadow cut in. “If it’s not going to help us find them, there’s no need.”

“Agreed,” Knuckles said with a nod. “Tails, what do you need to analyze the foreign energies?”

“I’ll need to get back to my workshop,” Tails replied. “I’ve got enough samples, now I just need the right equipment.”

“Alright, head on back then. I’ll stay here in case Myla and Sonic return somehow.”

“I will too,” Amy added. “Someone should talk to Doctor Zell; Myla’s surgery is scheduled for the end of the week, it’s not her fault if she misses it…”

“I’ll talk to her,” Tails promised, looking at Shadow. The dark hedgehog nodded once; if Amy was staying here, so was he.

***

“This is your hiding place?” Tails asked.

“Would you think anyone would be living here?” Knuckles replied. Myla, still being carried by her Sonic, looked up at the old treehouse in front of them. It looked to be in good shape and well camouflaged; despite the large porch on the front, Myla probably would never have noticed the treehouse if Knuckles hadn’t pointed it out.

“I spent three months living in a giant mushroom forest,” she remarked. “I don’t think anywhere could be as bad as that.” Little Sonic looked at her, an eyebrow raised.

“What were you doing there?”

“Eating raw mushrooms, mostly.” This seemed to upset the small hedgehog, but he didn’t say anything else.

“There’s a ladder up to the treehouse,” Knuckles said. “But it might be hard to carry someone up. Sonic, can you get up there okay with Myla?” The werehog looked at the treehouse, considering things for a moment before adjusting his grip on Myla.

“Hold tight,” he said before leaping into the air, doing a small turn at the height of his jump to gain more height. Most surprising was when his arm stretched out, grabbing hold of the floor of the porch and pulling himself and Myla up.

“Holy crap,” said everyone on the ground. Myla looked up at him, concerned.

“That doesn’t hurt or anything, does it?” she asked.

“No, doesn’t hurt at all… Knuckles, are you seriously hiding the Master Emerald in here?!”

“No one has found it yet!” Knuckles climbed up onto the porch, followed by Tails carrying little Sonic. He led the group inside; the main room did hold the Master Emerald, placed on a small alter in the center of the room. “There’s a bedroom over there,” Knuckles continued, pointing off to the left. “And there’s access to a hot spring under the treehouse. It’s not the most secure, I’ll give you that, but it’s well hidden. This is as good of a place as any for for Myla to hide out while she rests up.”

“It shouldn’t take long,” Myla added. “Few days maybe.”

“Because of the Phantom Ruby?” Little Sonic asked. “We heard Robotnik mention that…” Myla nodded.

“Yeah, apparently I absorbed it’s power when it was destroyed. It’s hard to use, takes a ton of energy… I try not to use it if I don’t have to.”

“That has to be hard on your heart too,” Tails said.

“Yeah…” She slapped her hand against her forehead. “Ugh… the surgery…” Her Sonic hugged her gently.

“We’ll figure it out,” he promised. Myla nodded, yawning a little. “Ready to call it a night?”

“Yeah,” she replied. “Put me down for a second?” Her Sonic obliged, making sure she was standing steadily before fully letting go. She walked over to Knuckles, Tails and Little Sonic, giving each of them a hug. “Thanks for coming to get me.” All three of them seemed surprised by this, just standing there as Myla retreated to the bedroom.

“You boys going to be okay?” Sonic the Werehog asked with a grin. They nodded. “Alright, well… I’m going to bed. See you all in the morning.”

The bedroom had an old mirror hanging on the wall; when Sonic went in, he found Myla standing in front of it. She had taken out her pigtails, letting her long hair rest on her shoulders, removed her shoes and what was left of her shirt, leaving her in just her shorts and a sports bra. She was looking at some dark bruises on her side that he recognized the pattern of; a Grabber Spider had had her in it’s grasp. Sonic felt anger burning inside of him, his fists clenching. He closed his eyes, trying to calm himself… he felt a gentle hand on his arm.

“Hey handsome… still with me?” He opened his eyes; Myla was in front of him, looking up at him. He was usually taller than her, but now he towered over her like she was a child.

“He hurt you,” he finally said, hearing the rage in his voice. “He hurt you, and I wasn’t there…” She leaned against his chest, wrapping her arms around his waist. He gently rested one of his giant hands on the back of her head. “I’m sorry, My…”

“I’m going to get hurt now and then, Sonic,” she said softly. “I know you want to protect me from everything…” She looked up at him, smiling. “I want to do the same for you… but we’re both need to accept that accidents happen. We’d have to stop fighting if we never wanted each other to get hurt again, and I think that would kill us both.” He chuckled a little.

“Yeah… you’re probably right.” He stroked her hair gently. “But still…” He looked down at her, blinking a little. “How long have you had a tattoo?” She looked at her shoulder, grinning a little at the heart shaped sunflower that was tattooed there.

“Shirt sleeves usually cover it…” She sighed. “The thing is… I don’t remember getting it. I’ve just always had it… another gap I can’t explain…”

“It’s very you,” Sonic told her, picking her up gently and carrying her over to the bed. It was late, she was tired, he was tired… this conversation could wait until morning. He settled down on the bed, holding her on his chest. She giggled softly, snuggling against him.

“Robotnik was after our Master Emerald,” she said sleepily. “His claw grabbed me because… energy something or other.”

“I’m just awake enough for that to make sense,” Sonic replied. He kissed her forehead gently. “Good night, sunflower.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “Help Me Make It Through The Night” - Willie Nelson
> 
> https://youtu.be/1bCDWLSrlI4
> 
> The idea of Knuckles hiding the Master Emerald wherever he can find a spot for it comes from the Sonic Mania Adventures cartoon: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6YtbPaCgKrT1o0_QT1uGR5PruDIDLmew


	8. I Am the Fire

“Grandpa, I’m home! Are you here?” Myla set her bag on on the stairs leading up to her room before heading to the kitchen. “Grandpa?”

“I’m down in the workshop, pumpkin!”

“Okay, I’ll be down in a sec!” She grabbed two cans of iced coffee from the fridge along with some cookies from the cupboard before heading down into the workshop.

The stairs heading down were old and Myla often worried that she was going to fall down them one day. The workshop at the bottom was more of a laboratory; various computers and other machines lined the walls, the tables were covered with electronics, tools, and empty coffee mugs; standing in front of one of the tables, their back to the stairs, was an older, yellowish brown hedgehog.

“I was wondering where all of our mugs went,” Myla said teasingly.

“I was going to bring them up tonight!”

“And would have left them right where they are.”

“Probably!” The older hedgehog turned towards her. He wore glasses, had an old scar across his left eye, and a wide smile across his face as he walked over to her. “How was school, pumpkin?”

“Boring, as usual.” She handed him one of the cans of coffee, giving him a kiss on the cheek.

“Might be a little less boring if you took time to make some friends.” Myla gave him a look. “I’m just saying, friends make the boring less mundane…”

“And then I’ll just vanish if she finds us again; that’s not fair to anyone else.”

“Its better to have loved then lost, then never to have loved at all.”

“Yeah, keep telling yourself that.” He wrapped an arm around her, giving her a squeeze.

“She’s not going to be a problem forever, Myla-my-love,” he said gently. “You don’t need to be alone like this…”

“I’m not alone, Grandpa,” she replied with a grin. “I’ve got you.” He chuckled, shaking his head.

“Hey, I’ve got something for you.” He walked back over to the bench he’d been working at, picking up a gorgeous hollow body electric guitar.

“Oh wow,” Myla said, her eyes wide. “That… is that..?”

“The one you’ve had your eye on?” He asked with a grin. “No; it’s similar, but I had a few modifications made.” He handed the guitar over to her, watching as she inspected every detail. The body was purple with a flamed finish, rosewood fretboard inlaid with reddish gold sunflowers…

“You had sunflowers put on for me…”

“It wouldn’t be yours without them,” he said with a grin. “Go on, give it a try.” She looked at him, confused.

“I don’t have an amp for it…”

“Oh, you won’t need that; I’ve made a few modifications of my own.” Myla grinned at him, settling down on a nearby stool with the guitar. She checked the tune, making slight adjustments before starting to play; nothing specific, just some simple notes to test everything.

You never would have known she didn’t have an amp the way that guitar sang.

“I love her, Grandpa,” Myla said happily. “Thank you…”

“Yeah, she’s pretty good,” he replied, a mischievous grin on his face. “But is that the best you can do?”

“Oh, I don’t know if you can handle my best, old man.” He threw back his head and laughed.

“The sass I get from you! Why don’t you give me what you go-“ Myla started into a song before he could finish speaking. It was slow, soulful, a perfect fit for the person playing with the guitar in her hands.

“Am I brave enough,” she sang, her head down a little. “Am I strong enough to follow the desire that burns from within? To push away my fear, to stand where I’m afraid, ‘cause I am more than this…I promise to myself, alone and no one else, my flame is rising higher…”

She looked up at him, grinning.

“I am the fire! I am burning brighter, roaring like a storm! And I am the one I’ve been waiting for, screaming like a siren, alive and burning brighter! I am the fire!”

“Okay, yeah,” her grandpa said with a smile. “Was not ready for that.”

“Alright, now what else did you do?”

“Whatever do you mean?”

“I know you Grandpa,” Myla replied, her eyes twinkling. She pointed to a little antenna near the tuning pegs. “You really think I didn’t notice this? What’s it do?” He grinned.

“That, Myla-my-love, is something I think you’ll really enjoy.”

***

Sonic opened his eyes groggily, staring at the ceiling above him. This… this was not his house. This was Knuckles’ weird treehouse hideout in the alternate dimension he and Myla had gotten transported to. He looked at his hand, glad to see it wasn’t gigantic with huge claws anymore; it must be morning. He sat up, stretching his arms over his head.

What the heck was that dream he’d just had?

Sonic remembered it like it was a memory rather than a dream; Myla, a little younger than she is now (“note to self,” he thought, “find out how old your Myla is.”), living with someone she called Grandpa. Myla had always told him she’d always been at the orphanage, she didn’t remember not being there. Was this another one of those memory gaps she mentioned? No, this was more than a gap… this felt like an entire lifetime…

Sonic thought about other things the grandfather had said; “she’s not going to be a problem forever”… who was this she? The way Myla talked, this person was dangerous, enough to force Myla and her grandfather into hiding… enough to keep Myla from trying to make friends.

Speaking of which… where did she go?

Sonic looked around the room; her shirt and shoes were gone as well, which was probably a good sign? He felt like she must have put those back on before leaving, rather than someone taking her somehow. He hated that her being taken was his first assumption, but right now? It wasn’t unreasonable. She had said something about Robotnik wanting the Master Emerald from their dimension; the Phantom Ruby had been much more powerful and it’s power was now inside her. He sighed, shaking his head. She was right though; they both would get hurt from time to time, especially if they continued the fight against Robotnik, or Eggman back home… not fighting wasn’t an option for him, and it didn’t sound like one for her either.

He loved her so much.

Chattering was coming from the main room; he wouldn’t really call it an argument if not for the fact that “argument” was the only word Sonic could think of for what he was hearing.

“There’s no way he could pull the Master Emerald from another dimension!” Knuckles said defiantly as Sonic entered the room. He and Myla were seated on the floor by the Master Emerald, both of them eating some cut up fruit and drinking water. “There are safe guards to prevent this!”

“Okay, what are these safeguards?” Myla asked. She smiled at Sonic, waving to him to sit next to her. Once he did, she handed him some fruit and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “Tails brought breakfast; he and Sonic had to go look into something, they’ll be back later.”

“Thanks, sweetheart.” Pet names were difficult; Sonic had heard Shadow and Amy use a number of different ones, but with Myla… a lot of the ones Sonic would use for her had been used by Metal Sonic and hearing her Sonic say them made her flinch. Sweetheart was safe, he tended to use that the most. Sunflower was cheesy, but Myla seemed to like it. He had another one he might try later…

“Knuckles is trying to tell me it would be impossible to bring the Master Emerald from our dimension into this one,” Myla explained. “He was about to tell me about the safeguards that would prevent that. I sincerely hope there’s more than just himself.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Knuckles asked. She looked over at him, a grin on her face.

“How many times has the emerald been stolen? Or broken?”

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN BROKEN?!” Sonic sat back, ate his fruit and listened to them run logic circles around one another, a smile on his face.

“Knuckles,” he eventually interrupted, right about the time he thought someone was going to start swinging fists. “You said there’s a hot spring around here somewhere?”

“Oh yeah,” Knuckles said. “There’s a path behind the ladder, it’s pretty well hidden.” Sonic looked over at Myla.

“What do you think, pumpkin?” He asked. “Soak in a hot spring might be good for you.” She tilted her head slightly, looking at him curiously.

“You’ve never called me that before,” she replied, her tone half questioning, half stating facts.

“No, I haven’t,” he agreed. “I can stop…” She shook her head.

“No, I like it; it’s just… familiar somehow.” She got to her feet slowly, clearly stiff and still in pain. “Yeah, a soak sounds really good,” she agreed. “Let’s see if I can get down the ladder without killing myself.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “I Am the Fire” - Halestorm
> 
> https://youtu.be/8hkmuTvkp_s

**Author's Note:**

> “Holiday” - Madonna
> 
> https://youtu.be/IHknoSQZibU


End file.
